From the passage of Prop 8 to the election of Barack Obama to the White House, the 2008 election had a profound impact on the fight for full LGBT equality in all 50 states.

This panel will tackle how we win and defend marriage equality state-by-state and how we build momentum for full LGBT equality across America. What are the lessons learned from the Prop 8 loss in California that Maine and other states can learn in their battle for marriage equality? How will we restore marriage equality to California? And how can the netroots help win these battles?

This session is dedicated to exploring some of the recent collaborations between traditionally online and traditionally offline organizations in pursuit of progressive public policy goals. This session will showcase some examples of collaboration from genesis to victory and offer a set of "lessons learned" for session participants, sparking conversations about the development of new partnerships and the deeper implications for progressive change.

The current economic crisis makes clear the failures of the “Chicago School” of free market fundamentalism but has not yet illuminated another path forward—one that combines a concern for equity with a desire for growth and one that understands the role of government as not just facilitating markets but regulating them as well. Building on the work of the Roosevelt's Institute's website, NewDeal 2.0 (www.newdeal20.org), the goal of this panel is to further define the principles that should guide a new New Deal. Panelists will serve as a resource for attendees (and those who wish to follow along at home via Twitter), addressing their in-depth questions about the origins and manifestations of our current economic situation. Then, we’ll discuss new ideas for how we should be rebuilding the country's economic architecture in the wake of the crisis.

Modernizing the nation's labor law is critical to expanding union membership—which in turn, will ensure conservatives become a permanent minority, as newly-empowered workers actively engage in political action and demand a new way of doing the nation's business, like creating an economy that rewards Main Street and not just Wall Street. The freedom to form unions and bargain is critical to the progressive movement—when workers have the tools they need to build a better life, they have the power to improve their communities and the solidarity to make progressive political change throughout the nation.

Learn about the critical efforts to protect workers and expand union membership, like the Employee Free Choice Act, and the union movement's efforts to reform labor law. Find out how the progressive movement has fought for labor law reform and what the next steps are, as well as how you can work together with unions online and in your community to get pro-worker bills passed and support pro-worker candidates.

The Bush administration’s continuous favoring of corporations over the environment and the Supreme Court’s anti-environmental decisions have taken their toll on American environmental law and policy. Can this trend be reversed? Will it be possible for the US to regain its position as a global leader in renewable technology and strong environmental values? What steps can the Obama administration take to demonstrate its commitment to the environment, despite the financial crisis?

The Netroots and the progressive movement have never had a better opportunity to make inroads on a progressive policy agenda than we do in the next couple of years. But without a keen understanding of the stories and the language surrounding these fights, we will not be able to maximize the potential of the moment. Facts, figures and truths are only effective in social organizing when contextualized within compelling narratives that are packaged, disseminated at multiple levels in culture and repeated diligently. This session will look at instances where unified messages and compelling narratives have made the difference between success and failure.

Seven years after the birth of Daily Kos, the social change blogosphere continues to expand its reach, engaging a growing audience and transforming the way individuals and traditional organizations communicate and work toward social change. Join us as we explore the dynamics of the social change blogosphere from civil rights/pro-migrant perspectives—those of National Council of La Raza, Change.org, Immigration Talk with a Mexican American, and ¡Para Justicia y Libertad!.

The green jobs movement has taken the country by storm in the past year. With millions of dollars now allocated for green jobs and training, what are community leaders doing to turn those dollars into real jobs? Panelists will discuss the power of creative online-offline strategies, bridging unlikely alliances and working boldly with both the grassroots and grass-tops to leverage opportunity and access through regional, state and federal legislation.

At last year's Netroots Nation, few of the expert panelists were willing to entertain the notion of prosecuting former Bush officials for torture, illegal wiretapping and other crimes. National polls now show most Americans want to see investigations and a substantial number want to see the criminals prosecuted. For months, the Obama administration consistently talked about "looking forward, not backward" and not wanting to "criminalize policy differences," but mid-summer indications from the Attorney General’s office are that he is considering an independent special prosecutor, albeit one that may not go all the way up the chain of command. What role is there for Congress to play? What don’t we know yet and what do we still need to learn about the torture program? How do we bridge the gap between what the country wants, what the law demands, and how far the politicians seem willing to go? What role can activists play in making sure the country does this right so that it never happens again?

This panel will discuss police abuse, racial profiling in stop-and-frisks, the Rockefeller drug laws and mandatory sentencing, immigration sweeps and detention, and opportunities for organizing online and offline. What, if any, steps has the Obama administration taken to address these problems, and what legislative and economic actions should our government take? How do the issues intersect in their effect on people of color? What political, legislative and organizing opportunities are there to challenge these policies?